THE curtain is set to fall on the Bolton branch of the Dunkirk Veterans' Association.

The passage of time since the last war has brought a rapid decline in membership and now there are too few stalwarts to carry on.

Twenty years ago the association boasted a membership or more than 70 veterans but today they can be counted on the fingers of one hand.

Following the recent death of secretary Bill Smith the association is to be wound up.

Treasurer Ernie Jones said: "It's very, very sad but I don't think we will be able to carry on.

"I'm 77 and I'm the youngest member. I just can't see anybody applying for the post of secretary and if that proves to be the case we will just have to disband."

Ernie is now writing to all the members to arrange a meeting to discuss whether a final decision should be taken to end the assocation.

"At the meeting we will decide which way to go but it will probably be towards closing down. It's the end of an era," said Ernie.

There are branches of the Dunkirk Veterans' Association in almost every town and city in the country.

But all face the same problems as the Bolton branch - a membership that is falling as the veterans get older.

Alfred Heyes, vice-chairman of the Manchester branch, said he believed that the organisation as a whole would be wound up in the year 2000.

"It's just natural. There are less and less of us as every year passes," he said. On June 4, 1940, 338,226 men of the British Expeditionary Force, together with many French and Belgians, were brought to England and safety after the evacuation from Dunkirk. But many were left behind.

When the French front was turned by a German thrust around Sedan, and King Leopold ordered the Belgian army to lay down its weapons, the British position became untenable and Lord Gort, the British commander-in-chief, pulled his men back to Dunkirk under relentless German air attacks and through thousands of fleeing refugees.

It was thought at the time that no more than 45,000 men could be saved. Lying off Dunkirk was a huge fleet - destroyers, ferries, fishing boats and river cruisers. Anyone who had a ship was roped in for the rescue. The troops formed lines from the beach out to sea, where they were hauled on board and taken back to Britain.

However, 68,000 were killed or wounded and the beaches of Dunkirk were littered with the bodies of those who did not make it.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.